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Readers' Most Anticipated April Books
At the beginning of each calendar month, Å·±¦ÓéÀÖâ€� crack editorial squad assembles a list of the hottest and most popular new books hitting shelves, actual and virtual. The list is generated by evaluating readersâ€� early reviews and tracking which titles are being added toÌýWant to ReadÌýshelves by Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ regulars.
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Each month’s curated preview features new books from across the genre spectrum: contemporary fiction, historical fiction, mysteries and thrillers, sci-fi and fantasy, romance, horror, young adult, nonfiction, and more. Think of it as a literary smorgasbord. Check out whatever looks delicious.
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New in April: Author Amity Gaige delivers a literary wilderness suspense novel with Heartwood. Robert Jackson Bennett blends fantasy and mystery with A Drop of Corruption. And debut author Liann Zhang delivers a buzzy thriller concerning the dark side of online influencer success with Julie Chan Is Dead.
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Also on tap this month: courageous young women in 1920s England, hungry ghosts in pandemic-stricken New York City, and a mysterious staircase in the middle of the woods.
Add the books that catch your eye to yourÌýWant to ReadÌýshelf.
Writer Alice Scott has just caught her big break. She’s been invited to spend a month with fabled heiress Margaret Ives to write her biography. Maybe. The catch is she will actually be competing with famously surly (and Pulitzer Prize–winning!)Ìýauthor Hayden Anderson for the gig. He’s staying for a month, too. Things get…complicated. Author Emily Henry returns with the story of an eternal optimist in a very strange situation.
Abby Jimenez (Just for the Summer) is back on shelves with a narrative portrait of the perfect romantic encounter. Samantha has just spent a flawless evening with handsome veterinarian Xavier Rush. But with her complicated family situation, Samantha concludes that a relationship is just not in the cards for now. Can she persuade Xavier to just walk away with their mutual memory of the perfect night? Be advised that there is also an impossibly adorable kitten involved.
Told from three separate points of view, this heartbreaking story from debut novelistÌýSarahÌýDamoff chronicles the dissolution and ultimate restoration of a Texas family. Ryan and Lillian Bright brought too many secrets into their marriage. Their daughter Georgette, now grown, must decide if there’s a way to repair the damage done. Recommended for readers ofÌýMary Beth KeaneÌýandÌýClaire Lombardo, Damoff’s novel explores timeless themes of family, love, and grace.
In her work as a journalist, art critic, and novelist, Katie Kitamura (Intimacies) likes to think about—and mess with—the very architecture of storytelling. So you can expect some structural experimentation with her new novel, Audition, described as a “Moebius strip of a novel.â€� The story opens withÌýan actress meeting a young man in Manhattan for lunch. From there, competing narratives invite hard questions about performance and perception.
In the early 2000s, teenagers Zoe and Cassie Griffin got very famous, very quickly, with their band, known as the Griffin Sisters. Now it’s 20 years later and the sisters are estranged. Cassie is off the grid entirely, somewhere in Alaska, and Zoe’s daughter has left to break into the music business herself. Using a dual-timeline structure, author Jennifer Weiner (Good in Bed) builds up to the mysterious incident that blew everything apart. Ìý
When experienced hiker Valerie Gillis goes missing on the Appalachian Trail, game warden Beverly Miller leads the search team into the wilds of Maine. Meanwhile, a 76-year-old bird-watcher in Connecticut makes some startling discoveriesÌýonline. Using three POVs, author Amity Gaige (Sea Wife) assembles a puzzle that works the literary side of the mystery genre, combining wilderness exploration with slow-boil suspense and detailed character portraits.
Set in 1920, this debut novel from British author Joanna MillerÌýexplores the complex friendship among a tight-knit group of pioneering women—four of the first-ever female students to matriculateÌýat prestigious Oxford University. Miller’s book explores issues of female friendship and emancipation in a turbulent time, while folding in historical details from the era—suffragists, the Great War, the Spanish flu, and the eternal peril of vicious misogyny.
Author Jeneva Rose continues the story of her 2020 novel, The Perfect Marriage, with the further adventures of criminal defense attorney Sarah Morgan. After having successfully defended her first husband against murder charges, Sarah discovers that her new spouse has been making poor decisions, too. On top of that, new DNA evidence has led the authorities to reopen the first investigation. Husbands. They’re the worst.
Supermarket cashier Julie Chan has made a life-altering decision. She’s assumed the identity of her long-estranged and recently deceased twin sister, Chloe, a glamorous influencer with crazy money and powerful friends. The perks are good, and she’s enjoying all the designer clothes. But a weekend island retreat reveals that Chloe was keeping some dark secrets. ThisÌýdebut novel from Canadian authorÌýLiann Zhang explores the sinister side of online success.
Bigotry and the COVID-19 epidemic have triggered a wave of terrible violence against Asians in New York City. But crime scene cleaner Cora Zeng suspects that something even more deadly is out there hunting, in the season of the hungry ghosts. Author Kylie Lee Baker moves from inventive YA fantasy to contemporary horror in this grim and subversive thriller.
With her 2023 novel, Weyward, Australian-born London author Emilia Hart won Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ Choice Awards for both Readers' FavoriteÌýHistorical Fiction and Readers' Favorite Debut Novel. Hart’s new novel, The Sirens, features a similar structure of dual narratives—this time set in 2019 and 1800—and a story that stretches into the real-world history of Ireland and Australia. Prepare yourself for convict ships, forced relocation, haunted coastlines, and missing persons.
With his 2024 novel, The Tainted Cup, authorÌýRobert Jackson BennettÌýintroduced detective Ana Dolabra, a genius investigator somewhere on the genius spectrum between Sherlock Holmes and a slightly friendlier Hannibal Lecter. Her Watson? Dinios Kol, a conscientious assistant with a perfect memory. Bennett’s second book in the series expands on the author’s unique blend of fantasy, mystery, magical biotechnology, and titanic monsters.
A casual camping trip turns into a nightmare when five high school friends stumble across an impossibility: a staircase in the woods that goes nowhere at all. Twenty years later, the group reconvenes to remember their friend who went missing that fateful day. Author Chuck Wendig (The Book of Accidents) delivers a horror-mystery about friendship, nostalgia, and the memories that haunt us.
AuthorÌýTahereh MafiÌýreturns to her sprawling Shatter MeÌýseries of dystopian YA sci-fi with a new story set 10 years after the fall of the Reestablishment. The new book follows younger brother James Anderson as he infiltrates the prison on Ark Island—as a prisoner, cleverly. Potentially complicating matters, romantically and otherwise: Rosabelle Wolff, a government assassin linked with a powerful synthetic intelligence.
Good news for Lauren Roberts fans: On April 25, the Michigan author is set to drop the final installment of The Powerless Trilogy, her popular YA fantasy-romance series. Paedyn Gray and Kai Azer return to the Kingdom of Ilya, closing the circle on Roberts� sprawling adventure of Elites and Ordinaries, Enforcers and Silencers, Trials and assorted tribulations. Also: loyalty and love. And did you know there’s a in the works?
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